Lauren Frayer

An advocacy group known for challenging the tech industry on privacy called on the Federal Trade Commission Thursday to investigate media reports that Uber could identify specific iPhone devices even after users deleted the ride-hailing app. California-based Consumer Watchdog alleged that Uber’s practice would be considered “unfair or deceptive” to its users and therefore violates a statute in the Federal Trade Commission Act designed to protect consumers from substantial and avoidable harm.

The nonpartisan group also asked Acting Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen and Commissioner Terrell McSweeny to determine whether Uber engaged in similar tactics on Android devices and scrutinize whether the company is abiding by its own privacy policies. “They have a track record of not paying any attention to the rules. That’s why it’s important, no matter what they’ve done with Apple, for the FTC to act,” said John M. Simpson, Consumer Watchdog’s privacy project director.

The House has passed a bipartisan bill, the Register of Copyrights Selection and Accountability Act of 2017, that would make the head of the Copyright Office a presidential appointee, term limited to 10 years. The bill passed by a large margin, 378 to 48, but must still pass the Senate. Currently the register is an appointment of and reports to the Librarian of Congress and has no term limit.

The Register of Copyrights oversees the Copyright Office, whose opinion that online video streamers aren't pay-TV providers when it comes to compulsory license eligibility was just deferred to by the Ninth Circuit in ruling against streamer FilmOn X. The duties of the position include "legal interpretation of the copyright law… promulgating copyright regulations; advising Congress and other government officials on domestic and international copyright policy and other intellectual property issues." There is currently an acting register, Karyn Temple Claggett, but no permanent pick, so this would apply to the next full-time official. Claggett replaced Maria Pallante, who pushed for making illegal streaming of copyrighted works a felony and shared ISP concerns with the impact of the FCC's set-top box proposal on copyrights and contracts.

As voters scrambled for new ways to raise their voices after Election Day, two Silicon Valley engineers introduced Resistbot — a tool that turns voters’ text messages into notes faxed directly to their members of Congress.

In the weeks after its March launch, Resistbot has spiked in popularity: Voters have sent roughly 800,000 pages’ worth of political opinions to their elected officials. And the flood of activity has come as its creators embark on an expansion, far beyond faxes to Capitol Hill. Beginning in April, Resistbot users can share their views about health care, immigration, taxes or anything else not just with congressional lawmakers but also state governors and local newspapers, according to one of its founders, Jason Putorti, who spoke with Recode this week.

Federal Communications Commissioner Mignon Clyburn blasted FCC Chairman Ajit Pai for launching an attack on network neutrality.

Commissioner Clyburn said the plan will result in a regulatory oversight vacuum over internet service providers. “They’re willing to dismantle a carefully struck balance that has served us well, and grant the wishes of a handful of broadband providers that soon will have the right to police themselves when it comes to consumer rights,” she said. “The FCC must never take a backseat while the nation’s broadband providers are calling all the shots.”

[Commentary] For as long as the Internet has existed, it has been grounded on the principle of net neutrality — that what you read, see or watch online shouldn’t be favored, blocked or slowed down based on where that content is coming from.

Net neutrality means that cable companies can’t reserve the fastest Internet speeds for the biggest companies and leave everyone else in the slow lane. That’s what ensures a website for a local pizza place in rural Oregon or Minnesota loads as quickly as the website for Pizza Hut or Domino’s. Or why a social network built in a garage is available to the same people as Instagram or Twitter. That’s why it’s so alarming to see that the Federal Communications Commission, a federal agency that’s expected to help protect the Internet, is planning to roll back net neutrality rules. It’s amazing that President Donald Trump, having promised to stand up to the powerful on behalf of ordinary Americans, now has an FCC that gives the powerful what they ask for — even if it hurts consumers.

[Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, and Al Franken, a Democrat from Minnesota, are members of the U.S. Senate. Tom Wheeler was FCC chairman from 2013 to January.]

Earlier today, I shared with my fellow Commissioners a proposal to reverse the mistake of Title II and return to the light-touch regulatory framework that served our nation so well during the Clinton Administration, the Bush Administration, and the first six years of the Obama Administration. The document that we will be voting on at the FCC’s May meeting is called a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. If it is adopted, the FCC will seek public input on this proposal. In other words, this will be the beginning of the discussion, not the end. Now, some have called on the FCC to reverse Title II immediately, through what is known as a Declaratory Ruling. But I don’t believe that is the right path forward. This decision should be made through an open and transparent process in which every American can share his or her views.

So what are the basic elements of this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking?
First, we are proposing to return the classification of broadband service from a Title II telecommunications service to a Title I information service—that is, light-touch regulation drawn from the Clinton Administration. As I mentioned earlier, this Title I classification was expressly upheld by the Supreme Court in 2005, and it’s more consistent with the facts and the law.
Second, we are proposing to eliminate the so-called Internet conduct standard. This 2015 rule gives the FCC a roving mandate to micromanage the Internet.
Third, we are seeking comment on how we should approach the so-called bright-line rules adopted in 2015.

Today, my colleague and I announce the beginning of a process to free the Internet from the terrible restraints of common carrier regulation now imposed on America’s broadband providers. After almost two years of experience, it is clear that this archaic regime never should have been imposed in the first place.

Based on hyperbole, rent seeking, imaginary problems and liberal ideology, the previous FCC took Internet policy down into a dark and horrible abyss. Well, we are here to declare that those days are over; we are bringing sanity and evidence-based decision-making back to the Commission’s rules. In releasing a new Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the Commission initiates the necessary procedures to expunge net neutrality regulations from the Internet. Following a methodical and transparent path, which I commend the Chairman for pursuing, will help prevent opponents from complaining about procedural shortcuts and the like. Instead, we will follow the Administrative Procedure Act to the letter of the law. Hopefully, over the course of the next few months, we can move forward to a final order.

It is always a sad day when government regulators choose commercial interests over the public interest. When the FCC’s net neutrality rules were adopted in February 2015, the Benton Foundation proclaimed them “the greatest commitment ever made to preserve and protect an open and free Internet.” Today, FCC Chairman Pai and Commissioner O’Rielly celebrated their latest moves to favor large Internet service providers over the American values of access and equity, democracy and diversity, opportunity and innovation. The message I heard from the commissioners and other speakers: “No one is against net neutrality; we’re just against any rules to ensure it.” Chairman Pai’s plan is not what the American people want or are asking for. Americans want to employ any legal applications, content, devices, and services of their choosing on the broadband networks they rely on. Americans want the Internet to remain a platform for all consumers, content creators, and innovators, regardless of their ability to pay infrastructure owners special fees for special access. I am sure the American people will tell Chairman Pai and Commissioner O’Rielly what they want. I hope the commissioners will listen.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai will travel to Capitol Hill on April 28 to brief House members in the wake of his announcement that the FCC will be launching a campaign to dismantle net neutrality. Chairman Pai will hold a bipartisan briefing for the House Commerce Committee.

Free Press President and CEO Craig Aaron joined a press conference with Sens Ed Markey (D–MA), Richard Blumenthal (D–CT) and Ron Wyden (D–OR), as well as Evan Greer of Fight for the Future, to talk about the Trump Federal Communications Commission’s threats to network neutrality.

In his remarks, Aaron said, "In Ajit Pai’s fantasy world, all will be fine if the companies double-pinky-swear not to interfere with online pathways and portals — despite their long history of doing just that. His justification for launching this attack on internet users is the utterly false and repeatedly debunked claim that the FCC rules are dampening investment to build out and improve networks. Do not believe Pai’s alternative facts. The reality is that in the two years since the FCC's 2015 vote, we’ve actually seen an explosion in over-the-top video competition as well as a dramatic increase in next-generation broadband network deployment. Aggregate investments by publicly traded ISPs are up by more than 5 percent since the order came down....The public won’t be fooled by Chairman Pai’s laughable plan or the empty promises of telecom executives. The free and open internet is just too important to our ability to communicate, to organize and to innovate — and we will fight with everything we’ve got against those trying to take it away."